In the Year 3030: Discovering Mata Nui!
by CI-KiteWolfling-NYPD
Summary: In the year 3030, a group of students lead by a slightly eccentric dreamer journeyed to a forsaken island in the Omega B quadrant...in hopes of proving the existence of a mysterious time period called 'BIONICLE.'  READ 1ST CHAPTER FOR BETTER INTRO.
1. Prologue 1

**( I hope this is one of those rare Bionicle fanfics that is unique, a vacation from the norm. Instead of focusing on our biometric heroes, I have taken a slightly different approach—that of the humans years into the future who are trying to **_**prove **_**the existence of our biometric heroes in the first place.**

**Fear not—it won't be all about digs and finding artifacts…I fully intend on delivering something amazing by the end that you won't expect.**

**There will be powers and Toa and masks and excitement and fights, don't be fooled by how slow things start. Another thing that might be a little weird is that the story is indeed told in first person, but the narrator has no control on the plot or even any idea what is happening throughout most of the story.**

**Like I said, hopefully its good and its different. Hang on, here we go…)**


	2. In The Year 3030

_In the Year 3030._

I will admit, today Sarah came prepared.

Three full length multimedia presentations, at least a dozen diagrams and overlay maps, expert notation from geographical experts from around the globe, logical proofs complete with step by step breakdowns…and to top it all off, her dollish features arranged in an expression that was almost to cute to refuse.

As Sarah stood there in the middle of the lecture hall, she clicked off her laser pointer and clasped her hands behind her back, sure that she had won me over. Her toothy smile was enough to tell me that she thought she had my vote in the bag.

And it was my vote that she needed, too. As I heard my fellow colleagues on the panel discussing the information Sarah had presented, I knew that Sarah could have cared less about what they thought. She needed my vote. I was the chairman of the panel, I was the one who could squash not only the opinions of the other eleven members of the panel, but this fanciful idea she had been working at for almost five years now.

I am Xavier Krause, patron and owner of the University of Technological and Scientific Advancement for the Greater Benefit of Humankind. Yes, it's a mouthful, but it is a mouthful that has made me one of the most powerful men in the entire New Earth.

And Sarah is trying to make her case to me.

What a bizarre one it is, too! She has been trying to get the University to fund an exploratory archeological mission to an island in the Omega B quadrant, some three hundred miles off of the western coast. And what is her reason for this strange request? She believes that this forsaken island may have once been the legendary Mata Nui.

Yes, I know. When she presented this notion to the panel five years ago, we laughed her out of the lecture hall.

A woman scorned is not to be taken lightly. Back then she had been a struggling student trying to find her niche in society, but since that day she has been building momentum in the scientific and technological world, looking here and there and under rocks for any shred of evidence that supports her claim, her theory.

I glance at my watch. It has been an hour and a half since this whole thing started. No doubt the hard works of the last five years of her life have been culminated into this little block of my life.

Surprisingly, her evidence is good, and credible. There is no denying anything in her presentation, and I think the other members of the panel realize this. They are no longer talking amongst themselves, in fact most of them have quieted and now sit patiently at attention, waiting for my final verdict.

Sarah waits, too. A map of the region known as Ko-Wahi slips off of the small card table she brought in with her and drifts to the floor, forgotten and forsaken. Sarah does not bother to bend and pick it up, because her eyes are locked on mine—her big blue eyes.

"Your evidence is staggeringly overwhelming." I begin, slowly, "But purely circumstantial on almost all fronts. Firstly, you are assuming that Mata Nui really did exist without solid evidentiary support. Secondly, your accounts as to how the island mirrors to maps of Mata Nui is easily explained away—

"So stop explaining it away, sir." Sarah's round dollish face is lit up with excitement at the message of her words, "What are you scared of? If this really is Mata Nui then what harm could it do? Are you afraid that if it is true, that the goings on there on the island and underneath it could threaten the sound grip you hold on reality?" She held up a fist, "Sir, your perception of the world is skewed—as we move forward in this age of reason, technology and science it is becoming more and more common for truth to be defined as something that can only be seen, touched, felt. Well my intent here is to bring Mata Nui forward into the light so…"

I glanced again at my watch. It was like setting fire to gasoline. I had started a chain reaction ramble that most likely wouldn't stop unless I gave the woman what she wanted. I could tell the other members of the panel were all for letting Sarah off her leash, but there were a few matters I wanted to make clear.

"—and the things we could learn!" She was still going strong, trying to make her point even though her time was up, "Why, if the accounts are correct then all the elemental algorithms and prediction ratios we've ever created would be for naught, because like the legends say—"

"Sarah!" I interrupted sternly, not bothered at all by my rudeness, "The island you are talking about is in the Omega B quadrant—which is slated for Climate Control within the week. Don't tell me you missed this fact while during your hours of painstaking research?"

She looked floored. Another map fell off of her table and floated to the ground. This time it was one of those overlay diagrams, and she didn't pick that up either. Apparently she had missed the little detail I had mentioned.

"Climate Control? You can't possible desecrate that sector now!"

"Desecrate?" I frowned. Climate Control was one of the best inventions of the modern age. I had contributed mostly to the basic design of how it worked back in the early days of the University. It eliminated all chances of elemental change in the atmosphere and the earth, doing away forever the morning frost or harsh summers that destroyed farmer's crops. Most of the heavily populated areas of New Earth utilized Climate Control to do away with biting winters or heated summers. It really was the one thing that put the University of Technological and Scientific Advancement for the Benefit of Humankind on the map, and had won me the Nobel Peace prize. Desecrate?

"By applying Climate Control to the Omega B quadrant, you would totally abolish any atmospheric traces of elemental control left over from Mata Nui!" Sarah exclaimed, her eyebrows furrowed, "By going to the Sameness…"

"Well then you had better make this fishing expedition a quick one." I said, folding my arms over my chest and looking down at the woman supremely.

"Sir…you mean…"

"Yes, you have permission from this council to go forward and do what you need to, but bear in mind that we will not be sponsoring such a ridiculous waste of time. The University has more worthwhile things to invest its funds too. I've been wanting to say it for years, Sarah. If you want to go out and poke the island so badly just get a crew and do it yourself."

"Oh, haven't you read the motion? I have a crew at the ready and an airship to take me out there…" Sarah looked at me rather reproachfully, "I'm here just to try and get funding, and a permit to actually go into the Quadrant. Now I see why it wasn't open anymore. Because of Sameness…"

I had not read the motion, "Yes, I read the motion, Sarah."

I looked over at the other members of the panel, "You have one week, Sarah. One week on this crazy trip of yours. You have the University's consent and I'll write up the permit for you…but don't expect funding."

Her face lit up again with that same fervor, "Oh…I won't need funding. Thank you for your time, sir. You won't regret this at all! If this really is Mata Nui, then…"

I held up a hand to stop yet another tidal wave of excited prattle, "Tell it to me in a week, Sarah. This meeting is over."


	3. Enter the Players

**This chapter is a little longer than the ones I'll usually write. Bear in mind that this early in the story I'm trying to keep the plot moving briskly while keeping you interested. Oh yeah, and I have five other main characters to introduce, but that will come shortly…**

_Enter the players._

The Lecture Hall was out of bounds for students unless they had classes. It was the afternoon of a fine Saturday, and Michael Burgis knew that he had no business to be there in the ancient, gothic structure.

It was one of the few buildings that had not been done over by the Sameness, tall and proud reaching towards the skies with its erect towers and steeples. The histories said that once upon a time the Lecture Hall had been a social gathering place known as a _chuch._

Sitting there in the annex hall, the tall lanky lad of fifteen ran his fingers through his hair three times in quick succession—glancing around nervously in case one of his professors should whisk from a room and demand to know why he was waiting there with a guilty expression on his face.

He had gone over his excuses, played over the scene in his head—what he would do in case someone tried to apprehend him—"_Please sir I'm here waiting for Professor Steele."_

"_Who?" Insert an arced eyebrow here, perhaps even a disbelieving glare._

"_Sarah." He would say it in a condescending yet respectful tone._

"_Ahh…" A casual chuckle, maybe a flitting grin of recognition, "Alright then, good luck with that…" _

Mike knew—just like the rest of the student body at the University—that Sarah was something of a joke to the rest of the staff. She was smart enough, but all her prattle about the post-stone age time period known as 'Bionicle' drove her colleagues up the wall and across the ceiling.

Although she had degrees in Advanced Biomechanical Physics coming out of her ears, the term, 'Professor Sarah Steele' was never used, even to her face. She was always just…Sarah.

It didn't bother the woman. In fact, she always waved away students who tried to call her by her title, "I'm just Sarah, hun. Just Sarah."

Just Sarah suddenly burst from the Lecture Hall with her hair untied and flying behind her. Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she sprinted towards Mike, "MIKEY WE DID IT!"

Mike rose to his feet, expression blank, "Wha-a.."

Sarah hugged him hard, and Mike felt his feet lift from the ground as the woman hefted him off of the ground, "YES! Mikey we did it!"

Even though she was a petite woman of only around 5'5, she could sure grab Mike and swing him around with ease. Although…Mike was tall but didn't have anything on his bones. A literal stick.

Sarah's face was flushed with joy, "I had them all wriggling in the crushing grip of reason! Mata Nui was with me in that room, I could feel him!"

"Mata Nui, eh?" Mike said slowly and calmly, although he was grinning almost as wide as she was. In speaking slower than what he normally did, he hoped this would somehow calm Sarah down. Sometimes she forgot that she wasn't a kid, like now for instance, while she stood there in front of him bouncing on her heels.

Mike knew what she was talking about—Mata Nui was the Great Spirit, who chose to reveal himself in the form of light. He had formed the island that Sarah was so enamored with, and had created its people from nothing, binding them with the three virtues…

"Hooray…" Mike tried to look as though he were excited as the Professor, "We just got clearance to fly into the most hostile waters in the entire New Earth! Woooo…"

He tried punctuating this statement with some waving of the hands, but the enthusiasm fell through and he was left just sounding pathetic, jerking his arms around like a broken windmill.

"Oh, Mikey I can't expect you to know what this means." Sarah poked him on the shoulder and beamed, "What it REALLY means…if all goes well on this trip, I'll finally be able to break the rule of Sameness and get things back to the way they used to be…if Bionicle is real then it could shake the foundations of the New Earth like nothing you've ever seen…"

This did not make sense to Mike, but generally 98 percent of what she said went over his head at any rate. She was the one versed up to her eyeballs in 'Bionicle' mumbo jumbo, not him.

"Alright, so you won your case." Mike said, looking into Sarah's eyes, "Now what do we do?"

"We collect our crew and go on our merry way!" She flung an arm around his shoulder and steered him out of the Lecture Hall and onto the lawn. There was no sunlight streaming down on them, no wind to stir their hair.

The University had undergone Climate Control to make sure students were not distracted by such menial things as leaves changing color in the fall, snow falling from the sky, or even sunlight streaming in through the windows. Mike looked down at the drab, colorless grass and accepted it for what it was…but he could feel Sarah's hatred of the Sameness.

"Did you know that they are slating the Omega B quadrant for Climate Control next week?" She said in disgust, trotting up the steps and entering the main Hall of the actual school building.

"Yeah, I actually did know that." Mike said. He caught sight of something over Sarah's shoulder, and immediately ducked his head and tried to make his 6'5 foot frame look small. Sarah looked around for the source of Mike's sudden shyness, and caught sight of Emily Zandstra, a very pretty Topographic Imaging major. The short, black haired girl was sitting demurely at one of the Hall's many homework tables, bent over her work…

"Ahh…Emily, just the girl I need!" Sarah veered hard to the left despite the horrified expression on Mike's face, and tapped the sixteen year old on her shoulder, "In my office, please, and bring the files I asked you to dig up."

"I'm for that, Sarah." Emily sighed, slamming her textbooks shut and sliding them off the table and into her bag, "I expect you want me to rummage around and find Matt too?"

"Exactly as we planned, Zandstra." Sarah nodded at the girl, grabbed Mike by his shoulder, and hauled him along.

"Sarah…what are you—"

"Oh come on Mike, you can't honestly think that I'm the only one in this entire University that thinks there is some logistical weight to the theory of, 'Bionicle'" Sarah snapped. They passed through two more rooms with nothing exciting in them, seeing as the main campus had gone to Sameness to save money for contracting.

"Umm…actually yeah I did."

Sarah laughed, "I'm the only one that walks through these halls singing about it at the top of my lunges, but rest assured there is a handful of students who silently carry the banner I prance around with."

"You mean—"

"Yes, Mike. Get your jaw off the floor. There are students in this University who truly believe in the Legend of the Bionicle. Your sweet Emily back there? Sure, she's a Topographic Imaging major—and a fine one at that—but what she really does well is sketch up a good concept map of what Mata Nui may have looked like. Not only that, but her logistic skills have given me clear insight into how each individual Koro might have been set up."

"What's a Koro again?" Mike's mind was spinning.

"A village, Mike. A village." Sarah rolled her eyes and kept her steady march, "And her brother Matt…he will be invaluable to us as well, let me tell you…"

"I know Matt." Mike said, scowling, "He's pretty popular with the girls, him and his buddy Hunter. Last quarter they took all my books and put them in the men's toilets…"

"Boy's will be boys." Sarah chuckled, "The University can try and inflict Sameness on all buildings and residency's in the New Earth, but they can't do anything to stop the thoughtless impulses of two teenage heartthrobs."

"Yeah." Mike said glumly. At least he was taller than either Matt or Hunter, though…

The pair finally arrived at Sarah's classroom. She threw open the door and ushered Mike inside.

Although Sameness had already been done to the entire room, Sarah had tried desperately to try and reverse it by placing a solitary vase full of flowers on the desk. Flowers were hard to come by nowadays with Climate Control happening everywhere. Sarah was very proud of the flowers, though—she said she had journeyed literally across the country to fetch them.

The flowers had suffered from the Sameness, sadly. Although they were the same flat and boring hue of the desk, it was still something. None of the other professors had colorless flowers on their colorless desks.

"Damn Sameness." Sarah scorned, stalking through the rows of desks.

Mike sat a desk right in the front row as Sarah seated herself in her professors desk, giving him a slight grin. She sent a thought-wave towards the Intel computer on her desk, turning it on and commanding it to open certain files.

"If we weren't pulling out tomorrow, I'd have the University get me another BABEL chip for this thing…" Sarah rapped the side of the monitor sharply, sending the thought command again, "It's sluggish, I haven't updated the software in a while. It's not picking up my brainwaves like it did when I got it eight months ago."

She sent a thought command to the projector, which was fastened to the ceiling. The screen pulled itself down and latched, preventing accidental release while the bulb warmed up. Mike watched all this commotion, entertained as he always was at how machines made his life so much easier…

There was a terrible _Slam-BANG _and the population in the room suddenly grew.

Matt Zandstra announced his presence in Sarah's room by slamming the door back hard into the wall, "HEY SARAH!"

Hunter and Emily followed close behind. The latter closed the door delicately, as though trying to prove to her brother the _right _way to close a door. Mike felt his stomach lurch as he saw Emily walk into the room, a few sheets of paper tucked under her arm…

"Hey look it's the Burgis kid!" Hunter said loudly, as though he were hard of hearing. The muscular seventeen year old sat down in the desk behind Mike and grinned ruefully at him, "Whatcha doin' in here, sport?"

"Sarah invited me." Mike replied, merely to be polite. If it came right down to it, he would like to tell Hunter where he could go, and _not _be polite about it. Hunter was just…too good looking. To blonde. To tan. To strong. He didn't belong here at the University, where the New Earth's brightest and most brilliant minds congregated…

_'But then again'_ Mike thought, shaming himself, _'What the hell are YOU doing here, Mike? You aren't smart. You haven't even picked out a major yet!"_

Mike would generally fall under the category of nerd, expect for the fact that he wasn't academically the sharpest tool in the shed. And he hadn't picked a major after dumping three possible ones in the last four months.

"So Sarah how did it go with the big brass?" Matt asked Sarah, leaning on the woman's desk. He grabbed the vase and lifted it to his nose, smelling the flowers, "Ahhh…the sweet smell of Sameness…tell me Sarah what are you going to do when they finally figure out a way to pull Sameness on humans?"

"I'll tell them they can go screw themselves is what I'll do." Sarah said cheerfully. The projector bulb had finally warmed up and displayed a map of Mata Nui big and bold across the screen.

"I have those maps, Sarah." Emily said in her smooth voice, stepping forward and handing the papers to the woman. Mike felt his insides turn to jelly when he heard her speak…and he thought he might die when she sat in the seat next to him, "So I'm guessing by the mad look on your face that you won your case? We're going?"

"Aye, I won them over and we have permission." Sarah said, scanning the maps onto the computer. The image on the screen changed from Mata Nui to the island in the Omega B quadrant that Sarah had picked, "Friends, this is the very island that I have been dreaming about. It is catalogued as 'OMB-001' in all dataframes in the New Earth, but I like to call it…Mata Nui."

"You know, from a purely geographical perspective it is the perfect Mata Nui." Emily said, nodding, "Did you use those overlay diagrams I mailed you, Sarah?"

"I did, Zandstra. I did." Sarah nodded and looked around at the others, "And I'm pretty sure its what convinced the panel. This island has a central volcano, a large mountain range that cuts the island from east to west, lush vegetation to the south east, and a barren wasteland to the north. Our perfect Mata Nui!"

"Of course we'll have to poke around." Mike was surprised to find that Matt's voice had changed a little now that he was talking about, 'Bionicle', "I can't wait to do a sweep search for basic artifacts…if the island hasn't been touched since that time period so long ago, you might be surprised to know how well even…a Kohli staff would be preserved."

"If we find that Kohli field in Ta-Koro that the accounts talk about all the time—you are so on." Hunter grinned. Mike noticed a change in Hunter's tone too. Both boys seemed to settle down, mature a little when they set their minds to it.

Sarah must have felt Mike's confusion, because she smiled warmly at him and explained, "Matt is a History major, he specializes in the customs of ancient civilizations. 'Bionicle' is about as ancient as you can go, so he'll have a field day once we get to OMB-001. And Hunter is a Linguistics major, if we find any texts or any original chronicles he'll be able to translate them for us."

"I'm also a major in being incredibly sexy." Hunter's voice lost its serious tone as he arced an eyebrow at Emily and flexed his muscles.

"Hey lay off man, she's my sister." Matt laughed, standing. With one hand he flipped Hunter's desk over.

As the desk hit the ground (with Hunter still in it) Emily looked up with amusement in her eyes, and caught Mike's gaze. She glanced at him, shook her head and rolled her eyes.

This brief moment had such an overwhelming and instantaneous effect on Mike's brain that when he snapped back to reality, he noticed that there were two new arrivals in the room.

He recognized one—the short oriental girl with long black hair and a severe look on her face. He did not recognize the other, a broad shouldered boy who looked only a few years older than Mike himself. Both of them were leaning over Sarah's desk and chatting with her quietly.

Hunter was still laughing, and righted his desk. Emily was still laughing with her eyes, hand over her pretty mouth while her brown pools of bronze sparkled…

"Mike? MIKE!"

Once more, Mike had to drag himself back to the real world. This time Sarah was kind enough to help with a sharp poke to his shoulder, "HEY! Meet Wren Mishoyu and Sean Rivers."

Wren, Mike knew. She was a History major as well, and was scarily smart. With the exception of Emily, Mike generally liked to steer clear of smart girls. Being a dumb guy, a smart girl like Wren was about as different as you could go—and secretly Mike was an introvert fan of the Sameness that was taking over modern life.

She was quiet, though, and nodded her head shyly before sitting down a few desks away from everyone else.

Sean…Mike had never seen him around campus before. Hunter and Matt were looking at this kid strangely as well—and seeing as they were two of the most popular kids at the University, the fact that they didn't recognize the kid implied that—

"Before you all ask, no, Sean does not go to the University." Sarah said, rolling her eyes, "I would ask you not to pepper him with questions as to why he is here. Now that we have all assembled, I think we can get started."

Sean did not look at anyone, did not greet anyone, did not do anything to show that he was human rather than a programmed robot whom had wandered in. He had rugged good looks as well as Hunter, but there was something distinctly more sinister about this new kid…

It wasn't anything evil or dark or anything…just a shade of difference that separated him from the rest. Mike had a feeling that he wasn't going to be making best friends out of this guy any time soon.

Sarah whirled and slammed her pointer finger against the projector screen, and the paper rippled from the force of her indicating index finger, "THIS is island OMB-001, located in the center of the Omega B quadrant. The entire sector is slated for Climate Control in the week, which means that there is little chance of my advocating for more time. I was lucky enough to get permission for this, 'fishing expedition' as they called it."

"Loose term." Wren spoke up, "It's imprecise, considering the fact that no one in their right mind has gone fishing in the last three hundred years."

"Thank you Wren." Sarah gave a strange little bow and continued, "So we will have a week to go in and find what we can. If we can find something substantial, I might be able to use that to buy us more time before the Climate Control. As soon as Sameness hits the island, we're going to loose everything OMB-001 could ever tell us about Bionicle…"

"I can't wait." Emily giggled, sending Mike's heart off the high dive, "I can't wait to prove to everyone that we were right, Sarah."

"I have an airship waiting for us in the morning, mates. Pack what you need but chances are I'll already have thought of it and it's waiting." Sarah clapped her hands together.

"Wait—hang on a tick!" Mike stopped, "You mean…we're leaving tomorrow?"

"Yes, we have one week starting tomorrow!" Sarah beamed, "Come on Mike did you really think that I was going to waste time?"

"I'm looking forward to this as well." Wren spoke up, exchanging glances with Emily, "The history and Lore of Mata Nui is terribly exciting, I can't wait to witness where all the stories happened. Rahi? Bohrok? Rahkshi? Makuta? Lohrak? This is going to be AMAZING!"

"So we're just up and leaving?" Mike asked, bewildered. He was more surprised at the fact that _he _was being included in this planning, "Sarah—"

"Relax, Burgis you can take your stuffed bear if you want too." Hunter laughed, clapping the kid on the back.

"And your blank-ee." Matt snickered.

_I don't want to go anywhere for a week with these guys_ Mike thought mutinously. He looked up and saw the expression on Sarah's face, and knew that the past few years of her life had been devoted purely to this moment…and he relented.

"Alright…this should be fun."

He was lying through his teeth.


	4. Misgivings

_One day later._

"You want to go _into_ the Omega B quadrant?"

Feeling as though this conversation were going in mad little circles, Sarah shifted her position in the co-pilot's seat and rubbed her temples. She looked wearily over at the pilot, "_YES!"_

The pilot looked only a few years older than Sarah, a few loose strands of his brown hair poking out from his crash helmet. He lifted his goggles and stared incredulously at her, eyebrows arced, "You aren't serious…you've got a bunch of kids in the back who dragged boxes full of crap into my cargo hold…and you want to go _into _the Omega B quadrant?"

Sarah's smile was a little forced now. To make a point, she fastened her crash restraints and pulled her helmet on over her head. She adjusted the interfaces and spoke into the built in microphone, "Yes. I am ready to start flying. Warm up those thrusters."

"Whatever you say, ma'am." The pilot chuckled. Obligingly he flicked on a few switches, and finally Sarah felt the thrusters flare to life underneath her feet. The airship she and the others were in was a mid-class cargo carrier. Not the sleekest and most comfortable ride that the University could have offered her, but she was lucky enough to be given the access codes to get into the sector.

The pilot glanced behind him at the six teenagers, "Who the hell are they?"

"My team." Sarah said testily, "Wren, Sean, Matt, Mike, Emily, and Hunter."

"You're from the University, aren't you?"

"Yes." Sarah glanced at a few gages—the tower had given them clearance to take off. Now only if she could get the pilot to stop talking and start flying…

"Well Bloody hell couldn't they have given you better people for this mission?"

"Owch." Hunter could hear everything being said beyond the light blue force field that separated the passengers of the airship from the bridge, and glanced at his friend Matt, grinning ruefully, "I would consider that a diss, wouldn't you?"

Matt Zandrstra chuckled, keeping his voice low while the pilot returned to his instruments, bringing the rear thrusters up to heat, "Come on, Hunter. What do you think we look like? We're exactly what he said, a bunch of kids dragging boxes into his cargo hold and demanding to go into a dangerous section of water. What else is he going to assume we are?"

His crash restraints not buckled (as usual) Hunter twisted around in his seat and waved to the oriental girl sitting behind him, "Hey I've seen you around, you're in some of my classes at the University. I'm Hunter."

"I know." Wren Mishoyu said in a thin voice, not even looking at Hunter. She was engrossed in her book, "Please turn around again, I am not interested in dialoguing with you."

"You hear THAT, Hunter?" Matt snickered, grabbing his friend by the arm and yanking him back down into his seat while the airship started to move, "She's not interested."

"Aww I wonder why not?" The lad ran nimble fingers through his golden hair, his stunning smile standing out against tanned skin, "That sure isn't very nice of her…"

"Believe it or not, Hunter, not everyone finds you dazzlingly sexy." Emily Zandstra, Matt's twin spoke up from her seat next to Wren, "And we're in a six seater airship for the next hour, would you do us all a favor and not talk?"

"I don't think I'll be able to do that." Hunter laughed.

Emily looked over at Wren, shaking her head sadly, "Don't mind him, he suffers from the delusion that everyone loves him. If he starts trying to pick you up in a different language, it's just because he's a Linguistics major."

"I wonder what our other professors would be thinking right now?" Matt grinned, stretching back until he knew he was in his sister's personal space, "Us four misfits off on a whirlwind adventure with the University's most controversial professor…"

"Wren and I aren't the misfits." Emily laughed, pushing her twins arms out of her face, "It's you two, flat out no questions…"

While the other four were getting along quite well (at least sort of) Mike was shoved in the back with Sean, who was probably the worst conversationalist on the entire New Earth. The kid hadn't said anything even on the drive over to the airship station, or while they had been loading the cargo hold…hadn't even cried out and asked for a relief of pain when Mike's weak ropy muscles gave out and gotten a box full of tools dropped on his toe.

"Sorry again about your foot." Mike grunted to Sean, not expecting a response at all.

Sean didn't even acknowledge that Mike was speaking to him…which might have been his own personal way of saying, 'it's alright, no harm done.'

Anyone might have guessed why eccentric, successful, bright and brilliant Sarah would have chosen her team to consist of five underage students and one outsider…but anyone else probably wouldn't understand how Sarah operated. Right off the bat she had insisted, whined and cajoled her way into the co-pilot seat, intent on making sure that the pilot knew exactly where he was flying (Although the airship did most of the work once it was in the air) Now the tower had given them clearance to take off…

And Mike wasn't sure how he felt about that. Like most citizens of the New Earth, he was perfectly content to remain in his comfort zone, surrounded by the Sameness. He had a feeling that this OMB-001 place was going to be a lot different than the University. The very thought of this made him nervous…and he ran his fingers through his hair.

It was one of his strangest habits. To release tension, most people bite their nails; tap their feet etc. Mike tended to run his long and knobby fingers through his thick brown hair as many times as necessary, and considering the fact that he was almost always perturbed about something he was left looking as though his hair never had seen a comb.

Mike felt a slight jolt as the airship lifted off of the ground, the repulse-thrusters repelling against the ground and giving it the power it needed to break gravity's hold. He didn't let himself look out the viewing portal, because he knew he would be able to see the ground falling away even if the pressure had already stabilized inside the ship…

"Don't expect me to stick around once we land, ma'am." The pilot said, chuckling. He punched in the navigation codes and sat back, grinning over at Sarah, "You know as well as I do that the Omega B quadrant is one of the wildest sectors of the entire New Earth…"

"You say that only because you, like so many others in this blasted age of reason and technology, know nothing else. You no doubt have never seen anything that has NEVER been touched by Climate Control or Sameness." Sarah said through her telecom link, arms crossed over her chest defiantly, "Well the Omega B quadrant is something new for you, mate."

Hunter rolled his eyes and looked at Matt again, "I don't think our pilot knows the two rules about Sarah—don't get her started on Bionicle, or Sameness."

"Weird how she loves one to death and hates the other." Matt said, grinning, "OY! Pilot, what is the ETA of this trip?"

Mike didn't hear the pilot's response. He bent over and stared at his toes. Although Sarah's biting comments had been directed towards the pilot, it felt as though she had been talking to him. Here he was, sitting in a airship bound for a part of the New Earth that he wasn't all that sure he wanted to be at.

If Sarah's bizarre theories about, 'Bionicle' were true…then it would do away Sameness forever, wouldn't it? The main theories of Climate Control would fall apart at the truth of elemental heroes, and if all went as terribly as the scenario now forming itself in Mike's head…the entire New Earth could be turned on its head.

And the other's were excited about this?

Mike felt the engines of the airship rumble beneath him—they had left campus airspace. There was no turning back. They were going to Mata Nui.

He ran his fingers through his hair three times.


	5. Landing

_Landing._

Wren, Emily, Matt, and Hunter were glued to the viewing portals as the airship banked low over the tropical jewel known as OMB-001.

"There, see that sloping landmass?" Wren poked her finger against the glass while the pilot circled the island, looking for a good place to set down, "That might have been the Path of Prophecies which connected all the Koro's together—it ended by the sea here. OOOHH and that bay there could have at one time been Gali's bay…and there's lake Naho—you know, Lake Naho was very close to the Water village, maybe we should land on the beach there—and look! Jungles! Le-wahi, perhaps? The jungle regions of the island were known for being awful treacherous, the sheer amount of dangerous Rahi and mean plants. From this high I can't identify any of the vegetation, but you never know, there could be some Vuata Maca down in there somewhere…"

"My God." Hunter groaned, slamming his head against the portal, "She's like a talking textbook that you can't close…"

Everyone was now painfully aware of the fact that Wren could be shy and quiet when she wanted to, but tended to lack an, 'off switch' once you got her going. Anything that remotely fell under the category of, 'History' would cause her to immediately fly off the handle on a sprawling rant. So far the only way Hunter had been able to get her to shut up was a flying tackle.

"Hey Hunter!" Matt pounded his buddy on the shoulder to get his attention, even though they were standing right next to each other, "See that clearing there in the forest? What if that was the Le-Wahi Kholi field!"

"_WICKED!"_ Suddenly enthused, Hunter gave a whoop of joy, "I can't wait to see if the Koro's fields are still at least partially standing…Le-Wahi's had an open floor, you know. It goes straight down to the forest floor, at least a hundred feet. And they played Gukko back, it was like—"

"AMAZING." Matt exchanged an energetic high five with his friend, "You know it, man."

"You're right Wren, I wouldn't be surprised at all if that were Gali's Bay." Emily looked thoughtfully through the glass as the shimmering waters got closer, "Matt, why did they call it that again?"

"She fought off a few Tarakava that were getting to close to the Matoran for a midnight snack." Matt chuckled, "Nasty punching rahi, they were. They'd give Rocky Balboa a run for his money."

"ROCKY!" Wren's face lit up, "I love those ancient films! They have them in the University library for History majors only, and I'm so glad because now I can go in there and watch them whenever I want to!

The trouble with having two history majors in the group was that they would often go off on tangents about things that had to do with life on the Old Earth. The downside of this was that one or both of them could say you had a face like 'Hillary Clinton' and you would have no clue if it was a compliment, or even if a Hilary Clinton was a person, place or thing.

On the way here, they had talked in depth about such strange and outdated topics such as jukeboxes, equity loans, penny-loafers, Brittany Spears, Ipods… and Rocky Balboa

Mike and Sean were the only two who weren't at the portals, looking out on the island. Mike wasn't a big fan of heights to begin with, but even if he were to go over there looking down at OMB-001 he wouldn't know what to say. Even now all their talk about Bay's and lakes, paths and rahi was going right over his head. What the hell were the yammering on about? It was like having four little Sarah's crammed into his head and try as he might, he couldn't get them out.

It didn't matter if the subjects were Jukeboxes or Tarakava, he was still just the dumb teachers pet with no real major, no real knowledge into anything remotely Bionicle. He was taller than them all, that was the only thing he could best them at.

Sean hadn't expressed any interest in getting up to go take a gander. In fact, the kid hadn't showed much interest in anything at all since they had met. Mike was staring to worry that maybe somehow his soul had been sucked from him in a bizarre jukebox accident with equity loans coming in for the kill…

All at once, the four kids at the viewing portals unexpectedly broke into cheers. Mike felt his curiosity sparked at last, and got to his feet…

The sandy ground that he had spied out of the corner of his eye was now down to a sane level. They had landed. Mike could feel pressure in the hold stabilizing. He could hear pistons whirring and chutes and hatches were being opened…

"Welcome, kids…" Sarah's voice came over the CommLink, and it sounded as filled with hope and wonder as it ever had, "To Mata Nui…"


	6. Wind, Sun, Sand

Mike wasn't sure how he got out of the airship.

He wasn't sure how he had helped unload everything from the cargo hold without dropping more boxes.

He wasn't sure how he ended up standing next to the airship, listening to its thrusters cooling down, listening to the sound of waves crashing onto the shore…

He wasn't sure how he had ended here in the sharp reality of OMB-001, on a gently sloping strip of yellow that emptied gently into the water. In the back of his mind he thought maybe it had something to do with Bionicle, or at least some trickery on Sarah's part…

_Of course it has something to do with Bionicle, you idiot! _He shook his head, rubbing his eyes and looking around at the scene in front of him, _Your brain is fried right now you can't think…_

Yet even in his state of bewilderment, there was something he knew irrevocably and without a doubt—and it made his heart thump.

_This sure isn't the University anymore…_

The island was unlike anything that he had ever experienced before. The grainy substance under his feet known as _sand _shifted with any move he made. The wind was coming in off of the water and brushing his cheek, tousling his hair around him in a mocking sort of way. It was hot, rays coming down from the sun. Mike started to feel a little vulnerable—there was no EnviroDome above their heads to shield the suns harmful radiation. What if they were all to get sick from the UV and die?

Wind. Sun. Sand. They weren't new things to Mike, but simply…unfamiliar. He had lived most of his life in the sheltered safety that the New Earth had to offer—Climate Control and Sameness. That's where security was.

"Get your jaw off the ground, kid." Hunter laughed, coming up behind Mike and clapping him on the back, "This is major outta everyone's comfort zone, but we'll all get used to it."

Mike staggered forward a little from the force of the boy's blow, wincing as he felt his feet sink a little into the sand. He did not like the feel of it under his feet, as he walked it felt as though it were trying to pull him under. He floundered back desperately, hating the sand with every fiber of his soul. Was it alive? Why did it shift so, as though plotting to unsettle him?

Matt was lying on his back in the blasted stuff, looking up into the blue, blue sky, "God, Hunter. Look at that brilliant shade. And to think that they're going to Climate Control this place within the week…"

"Aye, it is a shame." Mike's insides whirled again as he heard Emily's voice. He turned and watched her walk around on the sand as though she were floating, the wind blowing her hair around her face. She certainly was lovely, wasn't she? For a second he let relished the lack of Sameness, the lack of climate control—the sunlight streaming in and highlighting her hair as she strolled back and forth along the sand…the wind as it flowed smoothly with the contours of her…

"Hey, what part of get your jaw off the ground don't you get?" Hunter grinned, and he gave Mike a little shove. Although it had not been meant in an unfriendly way, Mike still felt very violated as he staggered forward again…

Wren, like Emily, was wandering around the shore, glad to be off the airship and out stretching her legs. The oriental girl seemed to have been struck dumb by the natural beauty and the sharp reality of where they were…

As she opened her mouth to no doubt launch into a long rambling speech about History, Sarah exited the airship with the last box of equipment under her arm.

"Gather round, kids. Gather round."

His shoulder's still smarting from Hunter's touch, Mike looked around and saw that Sean was sitting rather moodily by himself closer to the airship. He, like Mike, hadn't rushed around the expanse of _sand _exploring everything within eyesight. What was up with the kid?

"So obviously, we're here." Sarah looked as though she were about to leap for joy, "I can't wait, kids. This is going to be amazing."

"You know it!" Matt trotted over, sand in his hair. He gave his head a shake, sending the little grains everywhere, "Man I can't wait…that jungle behind us looks so tempting, I bet it's dripping with funsies!"

"UP HIGH, BROTHER!" Hunter whooped, and the two boys exchanged an energetic high five.

Emily rolled her eyes, and shot Mike that same condescending look she had given him the other day, "Great we're out here with a pair of seven year olds."

Mike grinned stupidly, and as the brain numbing effects of her words wore off, he began to think of what Matt and Hunter were suggesting. _The jungle looks awful dangerous..._ he looked behind him at the mass of humid green flora. The jungle seemed a little foreboding to him, dark and treacherous. No noises came from it to suggest signs of life, but there was no sign on it either advertising it as safe to wander around in.

"Our pilot doesn't want to stick around too long, he thinks he might catch our case of crazy." Sarah laughed and ran her fingers through her hair, which, like everyone's, was being tousled around by the wind, "I've double checked, we have everything that we need—long distance CommLink back to the University, food, water, instant shelter, Speederbikes…we're all set!"

She spun on her heels and gave the large green airship thumbs up. No sooner had she let her hands fall back to her sides, the thrusters underneath the ship flared to life. Everyone stood a ways back as the ship's Turbo-Thrusters came online…and it blasted off into the horizon.

Mike felt a sinking feeling in his heart as he watched the airship become no more than a speck on the line he knew to be called a _horizon._ It had happened so quickly…they were alone.

Sarah clapped her hands together, looking around brightly at the kids, "Well, are you ready?"


	7. Dreamer

**Sean's dreams will become more important later on.**

It was only a matter of minutes before the sound of the airship's engines faded from everyone's earshot. While the others started to bustle around with the boxes, scoping out what would be necessary at the moment, Mike found himself rooted to that same spot, looking out where the airship had vanished. He felt as though his heart had split in two separate halves.

_It has begun. We're really in for it now…_

He did not voice the troubles that were chasing each other inside of his head, because they were easily explained away and might earn him a sharp blow to the head from either Matt or Hunter.

_What if something were to happen? _Yeah, like what, Mike? We're on a deserted island in some of the most untouched areas of the New Earth, nothing is going to leap out and bite you. _What if we needed to get out of here? _The University would send another airship to collect us; they wouldn't leave us here to sort ourselves out. _What If we do find something? _Then we dust it off and put it in a jar, it goes back to the University for study and Sarah has her victory.

_What if…what if something finds US?_

The voice had no response to this. Mike gulped—

"Hello?" Emily stood in front of Mike, waving her hand in front of his face, "Are you in there? Hey Burgis! HEY!"

Mike snapped out of his strange state, looking at Emily, startled, "Whaa—"

"Hey Sarah, are you sure this Burgis kid is gonna be of any use to us?" Hunter laughed from somewhere behind him, "He seems to space out a lot…"

Mike opened his mouth to unleash a devastating retaliation to Hunter's playful comment, but Emily beat him to it, hands on her hips as she cocked her head to the side.

"Hey at least he looks like he's thinking of something, Hunter. When you fall asleep in class everyone knows there's nothing going on in your head." She flipped her hair out of her face and gave Mike a wink.

_Well, that was certainly more witty than what I was planning on saying. _Mike thought rather grudgingly. (He had been planning on going with, '_Uhhh…'_ but liked Emily's responde better) _Hey she totally just came to my defense… _

"We, are _here._" Sarah announced to everyone present, pulling a large map from one of the boxes and unfurling it carefully. She jabbed her finger at a point on the southwestern coast, "Right there. We have this whole island to ourselves, my friends. Where do you want to start?"

"Well we should start by making a camp of some sort." Mike suggested with his usual logic,"And take inventory of food and stuff that we've got…"

"Ga-Koro!" Emily's eyes were shining and she looked around at everyone else, "We're really close to the geographic regions that might have hidden the village. Oh please, can we go there first?"

"Or we could go to the village!" Mike changed tack swiftly, nodding as though this had been his point all along, "I'm most certainly all for that…"

"If we're here at the bay, then it shouldn't be that long of a walk across the shores to Ga-Wahi." Sarah mused, looking around at the others, "What do you guys think? She's right, if we're going to go poking around a village, Ga-Koro would be the closest."

"Le-Wahi is closest." Matt pouted slightly, "But I guess I had best humor my sister."

Emily smiled and punched her twin on the shoulder lightly, "Yeah, you know it Matty. Really though, guys. If you want to head into Le-Wahi I'm sure that Sarah wouldn't care if we split up. I mean, as long as we have commlinks and our handhelds we can get a hold of each other, and know our way back."

"Good plan." Sarah kicked the cover off of the box she had been leaning on. She rummaged around inside of the thing, and withdrew a fist full of CommLink earpieces. She handed them out, "I trust you all know how to calibrate those…"

"Of course, we're not old like you Sarah." Hunter laughed. He fiddled with the dials on the side and slipped the thing into his ear, "Hello? Hello? Oh yes, there I am." He turned down the volume and beamed around at everyone like the pretty boy half-brain that he was.

Mike set his up the same way Hunter had, and put it into his ear. Now it really was going to be like they were all shoved into his head. He allowed himself a small grin as he imagined it…would Hunter and his big head fit into his own ear?

Mike watched as Sean silently set up his CommLink and slipped it into his ear. Mike knew he had to mention something about the most mysterious member of their entourage and felt that now was the best time to say it before they set off.

"Hey Sarah, how are we going to keep tabs on Sean if he doesn't talk to us?"

"Yeah!" Matt frowned looking the kid up and down, "Does he think he's better than us or something? He hasn't opened his trap since we got on the airship. What gives, Sarah?"

Everyone was staring at Sean now, and he stared back. Mike noticed for the first time that his gaze was piercing and rather unpleasant. His pupils were large and threatened to swallow his irises, as though he had been sitting in the dark for a long time and had to get used to the light. The boy's expression was unreadable. Eerie.

"He doesn't talk because he is a mute." Sarah said, and her voice became uncharacteristically harsh, "And he did not qualify for a ThoughtWave voice-box, because he can see the Dreams. The University refused to help him speak because he was different, because he was unique. They tried to give him medication to take the Dreams away, but he flatly refused. You know the law—Sameness cannot be inflicted on humans, and that's what they were trying to do."

A pause—

"The Dreams?" Mike felt very small, looking at the boy, "He still Dreams?"

Things got very quiet on that forsaken beach. It was in the back of everyone's mind, the Dreams. It was said that long ago on the Old Earth, people could still dream. Fantasies, wild and bizarre adventures—but dreams they still were. Dreams were something that the University had tried hard to squash out, because Dreams were something that science and technology could not explain away. Mike knew about Dreams only from textbooks, but he knew like everyone else that the University was considering eliminating those textbooks from the curriculum. If the people didn't know, they wouldn't ask.

Sean's strange eyes took everything in, and…he nodded.

"He Dreams about Bionicle." Sarah said simply.

"I understand." Wren spoke up softly, "The University would like very much to keep him mute, because then he cannot tell anyone else about the Dreams. Are we in his Dreams? The six of us? What will happen to us? Does the Knowing come to him in Dreams like they came to Vakama? Like they came to Gali?

The answer lay somewhere in Sean's eerie eyes, and…he nodded.

Hunter rubbed his hands together, laughing a little nervously, "OK…where were we before all this weirdness started?"

"About to split up into teams." Emily also sounded slightly unnerved, as though she would rather not have known this fact about their mute companion, "You and Matt were going into Le-Wahi…and Wren and I wanted to go check out Ga-Koro."

"That leaves me, Mike, and Sean." Sarah said, cheerful once more, "Well boys, where do you want to head?"

Personally, Mike would have liked to adjourn to what might have been the village of Ga with Emily, but he knew that it would seem awfully weird if he went with the girls instead of the guys—Matt and Hunter might not appreciate his gallant step to try and be with the ladies of the trip. Therefore the fact that he was a twerp and a coward made him step closer to the two other boys…

Sean did the same, arms crossed over his chest. He lowered his head so that his black bangs fell in front of those eyes. Mike still nursed a healthy dislike of anything that struck him as too far from the norm, and Sean certainly fell under that category. Matt and Hunter similarly looked a little unnerved, but were hiding it.

Sarah looked around at her crew, "Well, that about settles it then, eh?"

"You mean we're just going to leave all our stuff here?" Emily asked, gesturing to the boxes, "What if—"

"Em, what's going to take them?" Matt laughed, and Mike felt a rush of anger towards him.

Mike knew he should step up to her aid like she had done for him, but the best comeback he could think of at the moment was something along the lines of, _"Oh yeah well…"_

"I promise you kids, the stuff will be just fine here." Sarah reached out with her toe and prodded the nearest box, "They're designed to withstand almost any sort of assault imaginable. My guess is that a heard of Kikanalo could rampage over them, and they'd be fine."

Mike gathered that a Kikanalo was some sort of Bionicle releated…thing because Em, Wren, Matt and Hunter all gave snorts of amusement.

"Well I just wondered." Emily shrugged, tweaking her CommLink, "We'll be heading due south east and around the cove to check things out, you guys are heading west into the forest. Good plan, now we have a handle on where people are going…"

"Yeppers." Hunter was practically bouncing around on the balls of his heels, "Sarah are you going with the girls?"

"GAH!" Matt exclaimed, looking as though he were having a severe sugar rush, "Can we please just GO?"

Sarah laughed and waved them on, "Alrighty kids, go have fun. I'm going to set some stuff up here, just keep your CommLink channels open in case I wanna holler at ya. GO! Have fun, let me know if you find anything…"

Matt and Hunter were off all at once, as though Sarah's voice was a starting pistol. They were of like a shot, heading towards the jungle. Mike would have been right beside them sprinting, except for the fact that he didn't feel like rushing to his death…

"Come on." Mike grunted to Sean, and the two boys turned on their heel and trudged up the hill towards the leafy green region.


	8. Of Ferns and DropKicks

**With a sinking heart, I realize NOW that my geographic impression of the island of Mata Nui is incorrect. Ta-Koro is further west than what I believed. Ga-Koro is further north—and nowhere near the landing site or near the jungle, as I initially thought. BLAAAAH I guess that's what I get for not doing my research. I like every detail of a story to be painfully accurate, so from now on you can bet I'll be checking my facts before I wrote a million chapters… --**

Mike found himself fighting a strong urge to scream as he stepped from the beach and into the gaping maw of the jungle. The sky and sun were lost to him as the green canopy overhead spread its fingers and covered him almost totally and completely. Instantly the atmosphere changed—and Mike felt a weight in his throat. He had never been in such close contact with _trees _or with _ferns _or even _plants. _With every fiber of his tall frame, he tried not to stare to hard at anything…

Something brushed against his arm, and jumped a little—but it was only a low branch from an oddly knobby looking tree. Mike stopped abruptly—and Sean crashed into him.

"Sorry!" Mike apologized hastily, stumbling backwards in his haste to make amends with the strangest member of their party. Never being the most graceful teenager, he tripped on another something and fell backwards, wind milling desperately with his arms the entire way, _"DAMMIT!!"_

He lay there sprawled out in an awkward position, crushing the life out of a large and flowery fern. _Thanks for bringing me on this joyride, Sarah. It's been fun but I have to scream now._

"Come on Mike, we can't mess around all day!" Hunter materialized out of nowhere with a knowing grin on his face, arms crossed over his broad chest, "We know the flowers are pretty but we can't go skipping in them, we actually have a job to do!"

"Aww let the little kid have his fun!" Matt chuckled, also stepping from nowhere, coming to stand next to Hunter.

Sean pushed past both of the boys and extended a hand to Mike, offering help. Mike looked warily at the pro-offered hand, but accepted it and pulled himself to his feet, surprised at the strength behind the smaller boys grasp. Maybe Sean wasn't all good looks and pale eyes.

"Leafy." Matt bent down and examined the leaf of the fern that Mike had crushed. The expression on the boys face was unreadable—he was thinking very hard about something that much was for sure, "No biomechanics on this from what I can see. Maybe foliage of our time has grown over the original flora of the island…yeah that could be plausible…"

"Good work, ensign!" Hunter clapped Mike hard on the back again, making the boy stumble forward again, "You've given us out first scientific discovery!"

"Yeah no problem…" Mike muttered, inching away from Hunter.

Sean gave the three of them a strange look and walked away.

"Woah! Hey! You can't just walk away from the group!" Hunter charged after the kid and planted himself in front of the lad, seemingly reluctant to touch him, "Hey!"

Sean stared Hunter down with those eerie eyes, and pointed behind him with a condemning index finger. The direction he was indicating was due northeast, and there was finality in his demeanor that screamed without words _WE ARE GOING THIS WAY!_

For a moment Hunter just stood there, looking the kid up and down. He turned on his heel and sent a look to Matt, "Hey, the seer seems to want us to go northeast."

"On a whim? For the pure hell of it? Why not, Hunter, I mean we're here tramping around the jungle for the hell of it, let's humor the lad." Matt said cheerfully, coming up shoulder to shoulder with Hunter, beaming at Sean as though he were looking at a four year old who had just learned to say his ABC's…

"He's mute, not deaf." Mike muttered, also joining the three of them. He was careful to say it under his breath so that neither Matt nor Hunter could hear…

Although he was sure Sean had heard his comment, because the kid gave the faintest glimmer of a smile before motioning the three of them on and into the jungle foliage.

With every step that they took deeper into the jungle, Mike could feel the air pressing in around him. He was coiled like a spring, ready to explode at any moment. _Thanks for bringing me on this joyride, Sarah. It's been lovely but I have to scream now…_

The beads of sweat forming on his forehead were no doubt obvious to all…

"RAAAAAUGH!!!" Hunter shrieked, leaping suddenly from behind a large tree. He landed in front of Mike and waved his arms wildly in the air, "OOGA BOOGA!!!!"

Mike acted out of instinct, falling immediately and gracefully into a fighting stance. Without thinking his training took over. He spun and kicked high, landing a devastating roundhouse to Hunter's chin before landing lightly back on the ground.

Hunter dropped like a stone, hitting the ground with a dull thump—laying there and not moving. Matt's mouth was wide open, not believing anything that he had just seen. Sean looked Mike in the eye, and gave a small curt nod.

"He scared me." Mike shrugged. His heart fell so much lighter; he had been holding that in for a long time.

Hunter got to his feet, holding his chin delicately and laughing the entire way, "WOW now THAT was unexpected! Where did you learn to do that?"

"Brother, you got PAWNED!" Matt closed his gaping mouth with a snap, and instantly doubled over laughing, "That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life!"

"Oh, go to Karzahni!" Hunter grumbled good-naturedly. He flexed his jaw carefully, wincing a little, "Damn, kid you kick good."

Sean pointed to the Northeast again.

"Yeah I know, hang on for just a tick seer-boy, "Hunter had his handheld out and was scrolling through various maps of the island that he had uploaded before their departure, "Southeast…hey the Mangai is just ahead—sorry, I mean what _might _have been the Mangai…"

Sean still stood there with his eerie eyes flashing, arm extended. He gave no other sign of anxiousness or worry, but it was clear even without other words or gestures that he wanted to move on…

Mike took a deep breath. He felt a lot better now that he had released some of the pressure that had been building up inside of him. Was it worth it? Hell yeah it was. Hunter was now looking at him a little differently, and once his jaw was done swelling up Mike was sure that the kid would stop treating him like an invalid.

Or was that too much to hope?

"If we're getting closer to the Mangai, then that must mean that we're nearing Ta-Wahi!" Matt said, frowning, "Volcanoes, charred forests, Lakes of lava…did we bring any protective gear with us?"

"Don't be a Kolhi-head, you dork." Hunter laughed, looking up at Matt, "There's no way that the volcano is still active. _The time before time_, remember? My guess is that if we do find something that resembles Ta-Koro it will be just a heap of ashes."

"Heap of ashes or no, let's go check it out!" Matt clapped his hands and glanced up at the tall trees, "Le-Wahi is around here somewhere, but chances are we wont even be able to get high enough into the air to see it."

"That's true, but we might stumble on the Fau Swamp where the ground level part to the village is if we try hard enough." Hunter slipped his handheld back into his pocket, "And yet I would rather see Ta-Koro in all its glory than the swamp lands of Le-Wahi…"

"Amen, brother." Matt glanced at Mike, "What do you think?"

All their talks of Mangai, Karzahni, Fau Swamps, Kolhi, and whatnot had gone over his head, but somehow the prospect of a village of fire intrigued him. He had seen holographic simulations of flame at the University, but never in his fifteen years had he seen it, beheld its flickering wonder…

It's amazing how good kicking a jock in the face can make you feel. Mike suddenly felt as though he could take on the world…

"Let's go check this out!" He said, grinning like a wolf.

Matt and Hunter glanced at each other a little warily, but shrugged.

Sean gave up, dropping his arm to his side and just walked away.

"Lead on, runt!" Matt exclaimed, practically skipping after the kid.


	9. Real Beauty

**Listening to the 'Legends of the Fall' soundtrack helped me identify with Wren and Emily's sense of pure wonderment. Imagine—they've never seen a mountain range before in their lives, except in textbooks!**

It hadn't even been a half hour walking down along the shoreline of the island, and already Emily was considering the many different creative, graphic ways that she was going to make Wren shut up…

"Gali's landing point was only a few kios away from here, out to the south more." Wren started walking backwards, keeping her eyes on a small rock out a ways away from the shore, "Wow, that water sure is blue, isn't it? The Endless Ocean? The Great Barrier? The underground tunnels to Metru Nui, doesn't all of this make you wonder? I mean, if Mata Nui is real…then it's going to really throw off our entire society, eh? Wow, I can't even imagine what Metru Nui would look like, even after all this time! Voya Nui, Mahri Nui…I'm so excited…"

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Emily grunted with a trace of venom in her words.

The sun was getting a little lower in the sky—it was approaching mid afternoon. Both of the girls knew were they were heading, but all the same they were checking scale maps every hundred feet or so, not sure how the theoretical projection maps of the island would match up with OMB-001.

"You know Emily, you really did a good job with these overlay projections." Wren said while scrolling through a few files on her handheld, "Everything is accurate—except I think Gali's Bay should be labeled as Naho Bay. Historians of that time period differ on the accuracy of the former title..."

Emily had to laugh at that, "Wren, you do realize that when you say, 'Historians of that time period' that's pretty much only you and my brother?"

"Well I suppose so…" Wren said slowly, thinking about it for a while, "I never think like that though. I mean I'm pretty sure that there are other people out there who believe in Bionicle, don't you think?"  
"Actually, I don't." Emily felt a little surprised at the words coming out of her mouth, "The knowledge that you, Sarah, the boys and I have is so much greater than anything in a University textbook. I think we hold the key to the world, and not just Bionicle. Think about it—all the powers that were displayed during the time period of Bionicle are just mind blowing, and I don't think that the University likes to have its mind blown."

"Sameness…" Wren mused.

"Exactly." Emily ran her fingers through her hair again. She had grown used to the feeling of the wind tousling it about, but now it had died down slightly as the afternoon progressed, and she missed the feel of the breezes kissing her cheek, "The University wants to Climate Control this sector and erase anything that might be able to fight the Sameness…"

"Oh! Oh! Oh, Emily!"

Emily had done nothing extraordinary to warrant such an out burst, she had not fallen over with sudden illness, done a particularly astonishing gymnastic feat, or anything else worthy of such sentiment. Emily turned on her heel, bemused—what on earth was Wren spazing about?

Wren was quite unable to speak for a moment, standing there with her arms drawn up around herself in a strange sort of self-hug, her brown oriental eyes wide and shining, "Oh…Emily _LOOK!"_

Emily look out across the water of Naho Bay…and finally understood why Wren was so overcome.

Across the bay were the first few peaks of a defiantly beautiful mountain range. They were tall and proud, rearing high as they were ought into the brilliantly blue sky. They were snowcapped to the fullest extent, closer scrutiny revealing that there were little dots of green and brown the further down you went.

Emily found her breath caught up in her chest at this sight. She could not even make out the summits of these mountains; great and sprawling clouds hid them—as fluffy white as it was possible to go. For some reason they seemed alive, pulsing with life force just as sure as she was…

"Wow…" Emily whistled, and looked down at her handheld. Her rough impression of the Ko-Wahi mountain range was nothing compared to the real thing—there was no way for her to capture this sight in pixels and data. Quietly she slipped the device into her pockets and hooked her thumbs on her jeans—who in their right mind would want to look at a holographic image when the real deal stands proudly before you?

"How can you go to Climate Control after seeing something like this?" Wren asked in wonder, her eyes shining. A few clouds drifted away, revealing more of the breathtaking peaks, "How can you possibly go to Sameness after knowing that something as beautiful as this just…exists?"

"Look, the mountains reflect in the water of the bay." Emily grinned and pointed out over the water, "It's like a mirror image…"

"It's like two Ko-Wahi's right on top of the other!" Wren gave a small giggle, "You know, after you see something like this, how can you not dream? Do you think Sean's dreams are like this, full of real beauty?"

"I don't know." Emily was still entranced at the mountain range, "I don't know what to think about him."

A breeze sprung up again, whistling through the trees of the jungle and gamboling around their heels. The wind caused ripples to form on the smooth reflections on the Bay, making the mirror image of the mountains choppy and distorted—but still stunning.

"I can't go back to the University." Wren sighed, "I just can't do it. I can't go back to the campus, I can't deal with the Sameness after seeing how good things are without it! Who in the world caused Sameness anyways? You know, back home we always say things are beautiful—like someone looks beautiful on a certain day, or getting a good grade could be considered beautiful…but really it cant compare to the real beauty here. It's untamed, unadulterated."

"Now I see why Sarah hates Sameness so much." Emily's eyes couldn't get enough of the peaks, "Do you think she's gone around and seen this sort of thing so much that she's just so tired of…the lack of it?"

"I have no clue." Wren laughed, "Can you imagine being a Toa, and being able to command all of this? To have it bend to your will, to your every whim? That sort of power would be amazing!"

"To be able to create stuff like that." Emily gestured to the mountains, "And in six days all of this is going to be gone. Come on—lets keep moving."

Both girls walked faster now, eager to see more of this untamed island that would be their home for the next week. The Bay angled out more, and once they were at the apex of the arc, they looked around carefully.

"Ga-Koro was supposedly built on lillypads out in the middle of Lake Naho—which is also known as Naho Bay." Wren scratched her head, "But I've also heard accounts that the water village was set more into the jungle with a river running through it. A waterfall supposedly dropped the river down into the valley…the village was somewhere in the foothills of the mountains, a few kios away from Kini-Nui…"

"I've heard that account, too. It got me all messed up when I was making the overlay maps for Sarah, I wasn't sure which speculated location of Ga-Koro she wanted me to plot out for her presentation." Emily said, looking out over the Lake, "And predictably I don't see anything that looks like lillypads. Maybe the other account is true? I mean…if it was out in the middle of a lake that wouldn't be so great if a storm hit…"

"If a storm did hit, all Gali would have to do is wave her hand and the waves would be still." Wren said quietly, reverence everywhere in her voice.

Emily shot the younger, shorter girl a strange look, "She really was your hero, wasn't she?"

"Of course!" Wren's face was alit with happiness, "Even when her brothers bickered and fought amongst themselves, she was the sticky gooey stuff that kept them together. They say she was the wisest out of the Toa, eclipsing even Whenua! Her brother Toa fought with their brawn and their powers, but she could wage wars with her mind!" The oriental girl tapped her head, grinning, "Girl power, right?"

"In a predominantly male society, yes." Emily nodded, still looking around for any sign of Ga-Koro, "Girl power is defiantly something needed. All the same, I'm more interested in the geographic location of the village of water. It should be right here, right where we're standing!"

"Well come on Emily it's not going to pop up out of nowhere and shake your hand to greet you!" Wren waded out into the shallows of the bay, not bothering to take off her shoes and her socks, "If we want answers, isn't it obvious? We'll have to see what sunk to the bottom of the lake!"

"Do we have scuba gear?" Emily looked at the younger girl, alarmed.

"Well, I don't know." Wren called back, letting the crystalline waters lap around her ankles, "I doubt that bay is very deep, if they had a civilization living on top of it, it very well couldn't be kios deep, could it?"

"If they were all stellar swimmers it could be miles deep." Emily looked around, still skeptical, "We'll check it out later ok?"

Wren wasn't listening. She was standing now up to her knees in the water, just trailing her hands through the stuff. The reflected image of the mountains (which were now much closer) appeared in the water right along with her image. It was a strange feeling.

"Wren? Hey!"

Wren took another step deeper into the bay. And another. The water was now up to her thighs. Emily waved frantically at the girl, desperate to get her attention, "HEY! Earth to Wren! You have a handheld in your pocket, I'm not sure that you want it to short out, as enamored as you seem to be with the water…"

Wren snapped back to reality, turning around and looking at Emily, "What?"

"Just get out of there." Emily motioned the oriental girl back to shore, "You're starting to scare me a little."


	10. There was no Mike

**Volcanoes go 'Ka-foom'??? I guess so. The climax of this chapter is not as well executed as what I would have hoped, and my volcano research is lacking. JUST KEEP READING it gets good, I hope.**

It was a desolate wasteland that stretched before the trio, stark and naked as far as the eye could see. Ravaged and charred remains of…something lay down in the valley of the small hill they had crested; a large volcano loomed in the distance, casting its ominous shadow over them all. Such a scene could only be summed up in one word—

"Wow." Matt whistled, slipping his hands in his pockets and looking down at the devastation before them, "I mean really…just _WOW!" _

Hunter did not say anything in response to this, mainly because it hurt to make any movement of his jaw thanks to Mike's drop kick. His eyes had it all, though, the pools of sapphire widened in awe at the sight before them.

"Is that the village?" Mike asked curiously, his eyes taking everything.

"No, it's the Charred Forest." Matt clapped the younger boy on the back, but not so hard this time, "From the shore to the edge of the Koro was all burned down, from what we don't know. What got burned, we don't know that either. Visiting Matoran had to cross the Charred Forest to get to the village…but anyways, this should mean that Ta-Koro is not very far away!"

"Quite the doormat, this is." Mike chuckled a little nervously, "Doesn't really imply a gracious host, eh?" His eyes swept the scene over again…

"This wasn't the half of it." Matt chuckled, slipping his hands in his pockets and slouching, "They had a lake of lava deterring visitors, the only way to get across it was to fly or to have the guard raise a strange sort of bridge…"

"So they weren't big on company?"

"Well I wouldn't say that, a Ta-Matoran liked friends and a good time as much as the next, but the terrain here isn't very traversable even if they made handrails and little mocha shops every few hundred feet to help those who wanted to drop in." Matt smiled wryly, "I mean…yeah…"

A wind swept down low from the volcano, angling out in the valley before them. The breeze gamboled around their heels, blowing against them with an almost gentle, caressing force. It brought with it tidings of the terrain beyond…

"You smell sulfur?" Hunter grunted, jerking his head towards the volcano.

"Nope." Matt breathed in, tipping his head back as the wind tousles his hair.

"Well then that's good, means the volcano hasn't been active for a while. I don't smell brimstone either," Hunter looked around at Sean, wincing with every word that he spoke, "Ok then, Seer boy we're here! Now what do we do?"

Sean gave Hunter a scathing look, and hopped down off the crest of the hill. He started walking across the black and dismal plain towards the volcano, not looking back or making any motion to indicate that the others should follow—

"DAMMIT why does he always do that?" Matt cursed, leaping after the boy. His feet were nimble as he skidded down the steep incline, sending ancient ash and black embers flying, "HEY! Seer boy, get back here!"

Hunter and Mike followed without thinking.

It was an eerie feeling, walking amongst the rubble and burnt remains of a section of the jungle, like someone had taken a black marker and just colored in this part of the jungle with angry lines. Mike did not smell smoke or anything burning, which made sense if the volcano hadn't been active…but he couldn't shake the feeling that something fiery and hot was going to burst from the ground somewhere.

"Bloody hell I'm getting my shoes all frikken covered in frikken…SOOT!" Matt cried, still about twenty feet ahead of them, trying to intercept Sean while dancing around on his toes so as not to spoil his sneakers, "OY! Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"What, do you expect him to answer you?" Hunter pushed past Matt, rolling his eyes, "Our seer boy can't talk, kolhi-head. He doesn't explain, he just GOES!"

Sean paused in the middle of the Charred Forest, turning on his heel and giving them a _look._

"I think he really, really wants us to follow him." Mike said quietly behind the two boys, stating what was painfully obvious.

"Alrighty!" Matt threw his hands in the air, "Let's follow seer boy then, eh? Did Timmy fall in the well, Lassie? Did Timmy fall in the well? Go on girl, go on and lead us to him then!"

A pause—  
"What the hell are you talking about?" Hunter looked warily at his friend.

Matt buried his head in his hands, "It's…it's a History Major thing. Wren would get it…come on; let's just follow the kid before we're the ones that get lost. He seems to know where he's going more than we do."

The valley sunk a little lower, making Mike feel as though he were really in the pits. For some reason this didn't bother him. He felt more at home here than he had anywhere else on the island…and he wasn't sure at all why. Step by step he followed Sean's sure and confident gait, not sure where the kid was leading, but willing to follow as long as they remained in this charred and barren wasteland.

Sean was standing in the middle of all the destruction and desolation, leaning against the only thing within fifty miles that looked as though it had a purpose. Whatever it was, it stood on a slightly elevated platform about three feet from the normal ground. Mike took a look at it and was unpleasantly reminded of a gnarled old hand with fingers stretching up the sky…and Sean was leaning against the index finger.

The structure was made out of stone that was charred as black as everything else in the area. It looks ancient, as old as time itself. Matt and Hunter approached slowly, as though not believing what they were seeing.

"Oh my God…Is that..."

"Holy hell I think it is!"

Mike looked hard at Sean, and the boy met his gaze. A jolt of pain shot through Mike's heart and he quickly looked elsewhere…

Matt kneeled down next to the strange structure; looking around wildly, "Wait…if this is it, then that means Sarah was right, doesn't it? I mean…you know? Oh my God this is intense, I mean I always thought she was right but I never…I mean…"

Mike fought the urge to kick Matt in the groin, gritting his teeth, "What in the hell are you guys talking about?"

"Ta-Suva." Hunter breathed, looking over at Sean, "Our Seer boy here managed to find the Suva of Ta-Koro!"

"Just sitting here in the middle of the clearing?" Mike was cynical, mostly because he had no clue what a Suva was, "Without a village or anything else around here?"

Matt touched the center of the 'palm' almost reverently, "Wow, Toa stone, Nuva Symbols…it would be floating right there if the island were still around. This is…wow. How did Sean know about this?"

"He's a seer boy, remember?" Hunter pulled out his handheld and snapped a few frames, "Hey who wants to be the first to break the news to Sarah?"

To be completely honest, Mike wasn't all that impressed. He had been imagining maybe stumbling on an old and abandoned village with artifacts strewn about in plain sight for them all to see. Squatting there on the ground between two older boys gawking at a misshapen structure that happened to be the only thing left in the world was rather…

Feeling he might as well pretend that he was as enthused as the other boys, Mike leaned forward a little bit, and let his hand touch the charred rock.

The second his skin came in contact with the rock, there was all at once a great and terrible rumbling beneath their feet. Thoroughly shocked at these turn of events, Mike quickly withdrew his hand back into himself, looking around alarmed, "What—"

Matt and Hunter leaped back, cursing as the ground shook and trembled, as though shuddering in the throes of pain…

"WHAT THE HELL!" Hunter cursed, "MIKE WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Nothing!" Mike shouted back, staggering. The shaking grew so violent that he had to crouch down to the ground, and he glared at the older boy "A-All I did was touch the damn thing—"

"BIOQUAKE!" Matt twisted around and shot a frightened look towards the volcano overhead, "GUYS HANG ON, IT COULD BE SOMETHING WORSE—"

As if this was the cue, the ground started to shudder with even more manic energy

"Thanks for the update!" Hunter growled past gritted teeth.

Sean was already running away, sprinting back the way they had come, as though he knew what was going to come next…

Time seemed to slow down, stretching on into infinity, seconds taking minutes, minutes taking hours…the three boys looked up and turned on their heels, peering intently at the volcano above them…

_KAA-FOOOM!!!_

Mike gave a shout of alarm, and fell to the ground with his hands clasped tightly over his ears. The deafening roar was enough to make him wish he were dead. It filled his mind and his entire body with its ringing tones….

With the younger boy cowering at their feet, Matt and Hunter were free to look up and see the apocalyptic sight that hovered over them like some sort of omen…

A tongue of lava spurted from the volcano mouth, just barely out of sigh. It was a writhing thing, almost living in the way it remained suspended in the air while the ground still shuddered and trembled. As though God had reached into the volcano and stirred its contents with a finger, so now the volcano was spewing forth its innards.

Mike scrambled to his feet and was off in a flash, not even looking behind him as he threw this urging cry over his shoulder, "COME ON YOU FRIKKING RETARDS!!!"

Matt and Hunter didn't have to be told twice. The first burst had only been lava, there was no telling what the second or third would bring. Ashes? Rock? A devastating river of consuming flame?

_Kaa-FAAM!!_

"GEEZ THERE IT GOES!!" Matt grabbed Hunter's arm and started pulling him along. The pair staggered after Mike, aware that Sean was long gone and far ahead. Where had the kid gotten to anyways?

They were now far away from the volcano itself to see that indeed it was spewing lava in fine fashion, the red hot substance dribbling down its sides as though it had spilled.

And it was coming faster.

Mike stopped to wait for the other two and as they pelted towards him, he looked up and took in the awe-inspiring sight before him. The lava was coming fast and strong now, out of the volcano and trickling down the sides and starting to fill the valley to the brim.

"Y-You know what I'm starting to think?" Matt wheezed, coming abreast of Mike and grabbing his arm too, now pulling both boys along, "We had our coordinates wrong. This wasn't the Charred Forest, and we're nowhere near the village."

"Really? Not the best time, Matt."

Their footsteps were coming heavier now, and the three of them could feel heat at their backs. None dared to look back. A walk that had taken them only minutes down deeper into the valley was now taking much, much longer back uphill at a sprint, even with the added incentive of the lava…

"For whatever reason, the Mangai decided to go off…and I think that the place we're standing right now isn't any Charred Forest, if the Suva is in the center then for the sake of general historical accuracy—we have to be in the Lake of Lava!"

"The lava lake!" Hunter groaned, working his legs even harder, "Damn it—this is right where the lava break is! Where the Mask of Light was found! Damn it, damn it…WE'RE GONNA GET FRIED!!"

_­KAA-FAAAM!!!_

There was no denying the fact that they were slowing down, and that the volcano was spurting more and more lava. The lip of the valley—or, rather, the lakebed loomed before them. From this side it looked much steeper than it had looked when they slid down it during the initial arrival.

Hunter forced more energy out of his limbs, accessing reserves of desperation that got him the lift he needed. In one bound he had scrambled up and over the crest of the lakebed, rolling hard and springing to his feet at once, expecting his companions to be right behind him.

Matt threw himself at the outcropping to no avail—his smaller frame did not have the muscle to get him over the edge. Matt whirled—the lava was coming faster now, and he could feel the heat. It was creeping towards them now, thick and deep, fast and burning…

But Mike did not feel the heat, he stood there transfixed at the sight of the shimmering, red and gold substance that was edging towards them, faster and faster. He could smell the sulfur and see the heat waves emanating…but he felt no heat.

"MATT!!! MIKE!!!" Hunter's pretty boy features were contorted into an expression of pure fear. He threw himself down on his stomach to better reach the two, and for the sake of leverage. He lashed out his hands to either of the boys, "COME ON!!!"

Matt grabbed Hunter's hand and scrabbled furiously against the rock, gaining momentary hold but then loosing it in his panic. While the two struggled in a desperate attempt at life, Mike was still motionless, watching the molten lava head towards them, "Guys are you sure its real? I can't feel any heat…"

_KAA-FOOM_

As though the volcano were trying for one last desperate push, it gave a reverberating scream of agony…sending forth the largest and most continuous stream of lava down its side, rushing into the lakebed like a flood. Mike saw the molten substance flowing, and knew that this time it would fill the lake up to its edge.

Matt was still struggling to get up and over—to safety. Hunter looked up and saw the impending doom heading for both of his friends.

"DAMN IT YOU TWO IT'S GETTING TOO HOT!" His eyes were screwed shut as he held both of his hands out still, fingers outstretched in mad desperation, "GET OOOUUTT!!!"

Mike saw the lava rushing towards him, and somehow peace flooded his entire body in the same way that molten magma was about to flood the entire lakebed. He knew what he had to do, and he also knew what was going to happen.

It was as though someone had turned down the volume on life and slowed things down. Mike saw Matt's mouth opened in a silent scream, could see Hunter's face in its expression of terror…but all Mike felt was calm. While Hunter grabbed Matt's hand and attempted to haul him up and over yet again, Mike seized the boy's legs and pushed.

In those last critical seconds….Matt made it over. Hunter had not been expecting this slack on the other end, and the end result was that both boys went rolling and spinning, scrambling madly to get away from the edge of the lakebed…

Someone pressed play, and turned up the volume.

The lava crashed against the ridge, the unexpected stem to its flow. As though angered, the molten substance shot upwards in a fine spray, falling back on itself and sending ripples back to the center of the lake.

The volcano was now calm; the earth no longer shuddered. What had once been a desolate wasteland was now a lake of lava as far as the eye could see.

With a Suva in the center.

"OH MY GOD!" Hunter was up in a second, looking out at the scene, screaming so hard he thought that his soul might rip in two pieces, "MIIIIKE!!!"

There was no Mike.

Matt got as close to the hellish edge as he dared, feeling the heat bite and snort at his face. He could not stand to stare at the lava for too long, but dropped to his knees and called, "MIIIIKE!!!!"

There was no Mike.

There was only lava.

And Steam

And tears.

"_MIKE? HUNTER? MATT?? What the hell just happened?" _Hunter heard Sarah's voice in his earpiece, her tone tight and frightened, "_Are you three alright? HEY! Guys?? Are you alright?"_

Wordlessly, Hunter reached up and took out his earpiece, tossing it into the lava without giving a reply. The monumental fact of what had just happened had not yet sunk in …it could not have just happened, it did not just happen…

Matt called out again, but this time not as loud, "M-Mike?"

There was no Mike.

Hunter fell to his knees in shock—wide eyed— and threw up.


	11. What became of the Girls

**((Well, my hiatus was much, much longer than what I had initially anticipated, and I ask your forgiveness for that! It's been a hectic few weeks what with me being in pep band, symphonic band, homework, school stuff….urg, well hopefully my return is as triumphant as my initial arrival. This is just a swift, gag chapter to get me back into the swing of things. I hope to return full force with the next chapter.))**

The professional girl thing to do in any situation of stress is, of course, to scream—ideally at the top of your lungs. It's one of the basic girl rules, a reflex even. It's an involuntary spasm of ear shattering sound, and when the volcano erupted Emily and Wren obliged spectacularly.

They screamed when the volcano gave its last desperate push, sending shock waves through the jungle and out onto the beach, hitting their ears and nearly bowling them over with its sudden and crushing thunder.

They screamed when they saw the lava jutting up from the treetops, a devastating finger of fire that couldn't mean anything good.

They screamed when the repercussions of the blast rocked the entire island, even making the mountains shudder.

They screamed as the aftershock rattled loose a large amount of shale, snow and ice from the side of the largest and closest mountain.

They screamed as the large punishing mass slammed into the crystalline surface of the lake with an almighty splash, sending rolling waves towards the shore, crashing up onto the sand.

They screamed at the sudden bursts of static over their Comm-Links.

Basically, they screamed so loudly that the erupting volcano was probably flustered at this sudden and unexpected challenge in the decibel department. Crouched on her hands and knees with her hands clamped over her head, Emily was certainly a sonic force to be reckoned with.

Wren regained her composure first, leaping to her feet in a flurry of sand. Her face was twisted in an expression of complete and total shock, "OH MY GOD what just happened?"

It was an unnecessary question seeing as they both knew good and well what had happened—it was just hard to conceive. They both knew (in theory) what volcanoes were rumored to do, but had obviously never witnessed it before. Emily scrambled up finally, terror written all over her face while the island still rocked and echoed with the tremors and shudders of the underground…

Sarah suddenly was online and speaking to them on their Comm-Links, "Emily and Wren stay exactly where you are, do not move a muscle! Do you hear me? _DO NOT MOVE!"_

"Wait—WAIT!" Emily screeched into her Comm-Link, eyes still wide, "SARAH!! Where are the boys? What happened? What's going on?"

"The volcano can't be active, it's just not possible!" Wren was no longer in hysterics, she was standing transfixed watching the volcano spew lava over the treetops, "It's just not possible…after all this time it just can't be active…"

The oriental girl repeated her mantra over and over again; trying to reassure herself that science was kind and that logic was the master…this could not have happened, because if the volcano were active it meant that other things could be alive and active as well…

"Do you two read me?" Sarah's voice broke and the ragged tone to her words gave away the fact that she was running, "S-Stay where you are!"

It was such a crazy moment there, standing on the beach while the waters rocked and swayed—the entire island trembling and shuddering as though emerging from a great sleep…

The volcano spewed again, and this time the lava reached higher than ever before. Wren and Emily shrieked and clutched each other as the island twitched and groaned with the pains of the volcano…they could smell the sulfur and see the smoke. Something was burning.

Emily pulled herself away from Wren and started running towards the jungle. It took Wren about three seconds to realize what the older girl was doing before she swiftly gave chase, "EMILY! Wait—what are you doing? S-Sarah told us to—"

"_I don't care what Sarah told us to do, that's my brother in there!" _Emily screamed at the top of her lungs, plunging into the jungle.


	12. What became of the Boys

**((Alright folks, I think I had best make something clear. My volcano is basically the result of no research, and a few faint memories of a science class long ago. In reality the ash I mention would have been coming down immediately and probably would have killed our heroes sooner than the lava…but for the sake of the narrative I chose to embrace my ignorance and…yeah. You get it. Onwards we go.)) **

With the earth stills shuddering and shaking underneath them, it took Matt a while to realize that there was now ash falling from the sky thick and fast like snow. Still consumed at what he had just seen, what had just happened, he looked around him in a daze and realized that even though the lava had stopped flowing from the volcano, he and Hunter were still in danger. He blinked stupidly, his eyes aching from not only the heat but from the brightness of the flame and fire around him.

"We gotta get out of here!" Matt said rather thickly, wiping his sweaty bangs out of his face. Heat waves were rising up and making everything shimmer, including his grip on reality. Somehow he managed to grab a handful of Hunter's shirt, and haul his kneeling friend to his feet, "H-Hunter, we gotta scram…"

"Not without the kid…" Hunter sounded as though he had a bad head cold, and the tears were flowing freely, "N-Not without Mike…"

Words were steadily becoming harder to form as the heat started to get to them even more so than before. The ash was falling thicker, and it was hot. Matt cursed and leaped back as it started to burn, a stinging reminder to his predicament. The fiery danger still threatened to engulf them even after they had passed the first test.

Matt still had a hold of Hunter's shirt, and gave it a hard yank, jerking the boy along, "Hunter we gotta GO!!"

Hunter did not seem willing to leave, but soon common sense cut through the foggy cloud and he started staggering on under his own steam. The two boys ran hard and ragged as fast as they could in the opposite direction, tripping over any and everything in their path. Soon they left charred and ashen leaves behind them, and entered the fresh virgin forest while the volcano fumed behind them…

Finally they literally ran into Wren and Emily.

The girls shrieked when they saw the boys, more out of surprise and relief than actual fear. The boys were not ready for the sudden sonic outburst, and the next few seconds were a strange mash up of hugs, teary accounts and inquiring grunts. Matt seemed to have lost his ability to speak, all he did was hug his sister and let the tears flow freely. The ash was still drifting on the wind, but for the most part the islands tremors were over.

"W-We found Ta-Suva." Hunter was the first to regain speech control, and he gasped out his story to a wide-eyed Emily and Wren, "Mike touched it…and it just blew…"

"Mike?" Emily whirled, looking around her, "Where is Mike? Where is Sean?"

Hunter glanced over at his friend, and on the inside they seethed. What had happened to Sean? They knew what had happened to Mike…but was now the time to say it? The girls were looking jittery enough at the moment…

"We all got separated." Hunter said slowly, a nicer variation of the truth, "I'm sure they're out there somewhere, they know which way to go to get back to Sarah, don't you girls worry about a thing…"

"Of _course _I'm going to worry!" In her panic, Wren's voice was high and shrill, "The volcano just BLEW and you guys said you FOUND Ta-Suva! This means everything is right, that this used to be Mata Nui! This is fantastic—and _terrible_!!"

"Oh, it's fantastic." Matt regained his powers of speech, but his first words were laced with more bitter and venom than what he had intended, "Just GREAT, almost getting killed by the lava flow, I've always said I wanted to see a volcano erupt, but I never thought…I-I never…" Matt's voice broke, and he was left with shaking hands and closed eyes. Emily put her hand on her brother's shoulder, and then touched her finger to her comm-link, activating it.

"_Sarah!" _The younger twin called out, her forehead creased, "_Sarah wherever you are head back out to the beach, we have the boys with us we'll be heading there stat—Matt and Hunter are alright, they're with us—"_

_"IT'S NOT MATT AND HUNTER I'M WORRIED ABOUT, IT'S MIKE AND SEAN!!" _Emily winced and turned the volume down as Sarah's hoarse shout blared across the channel, "_ALL OF YOU GET TO THE BEACH—NOW!"_

Emily rounded on Hunter, suddenly full of all the tender loving kindness of a mother tiger, "You said Mike was _fine_!"

"All I said was that we got separated!" Hunter said harshly, screwing his eyes shut, "You heard Sarah, we gotta get back out to the shore…"

"What, while she runs in to save the day?" Wren demanded, "She's only human!"

"Come on!" Hunter steered the others back the way they came, himself all to eager to get out of the choking confines of the jungle. His knees were starting to feel weak, he had been running on adrenaline for the past…every. He needed to crash.

"MATT!" Emily's scream could be heard probably from all over the island as a blanket of ash and desperation draped itself over the land, "WHAT HAPPENED TO MIKE???"


	13. The Way of the Bionicle

**((Read carefully, or even twice. I listened to, 'Do not Move' by the David Crowder Band about fifty times to get things just right in here…sigh I hope I did alright.))**

Even in her mad and frantic pace through the vegetation, Sarah had to laugh. Emily hadn't yet turned off her Comm-Link, and thusly she had caught Wren's indignant cry of, "_She's only human!"_

"Oh, my dear…" Sarah grunted, turning her own Comm-Link off for the moment as she sprinted through the jungle towards the source of all the commotion, "If only you knew…"

Her thoughts were churning almost as fast as her arms and her legs. Anyone watching would have been amazed at her dexterity and endurance as she flashed through the jungle, heading towards the center of the island, but really Sarah's heart wasn't in it. She was too busy sifting through all the things that had happened very recently…

The air started to heat up, and Sarah could now see the ash floating on the wind. She was brought back to a time when all of this was normal; when the Sameness was nothing but a theory on papers…those had been the days, eh? When she and the rest of her fellow compatriots had been free to do what they pleased, before the riff in time brought them to this awful place…before the Vahi mask of time had—

And then she was brought back to reality as the heat suddenly got scorching. She could see the ground blackened and charred…she was getting closer to the lava break.

"MIKE!"

The apocalyptic scene stretched before her, the sea of lava and the hellish fire. The woman skidded to a halt, her blue eyes sweeping the scene with a practiced air. She seemed to almost be listening to the island, she cocked her head to the side and closed her eyes…

_"How long has it been since I did this?" _She thought to herself pensively, still listening to the shifting of the earth, _"How out of practice am I since leaving this place? Can I risk this again? What if I blow everything in this moment…what if he doesn't understand?"_

Almost in a trance, Sarah walked forward until she came to the edge of the lava break. She bent down on one knee, and without hesitating plunged her arm into the molten magma.

As she had expected, her hand felt something. She grabbed a handful of it and yanked hard—and Mike suddenly resurged to the surface sputtering and crying.

Sarah hauled him up onto the rock without saying a word, letting him gasp and choke and writhe. Eventually she scooted back a few feet and let him lie there in a little ball and moan…

Mike felt so disoriented he hadn't even noticed that he was out of the lava. When it had washed over him, he had felt nothing…but at the same time he had felt everything. The substance did not burn him, but it seeped into him and gave him a sense of…

Any sense of normalcy had been dashed in that moment. Mike gave a shuddering gasp, confident finally that his lungs worked. He looked around and saw Sarah.

"W-Wh—"

"No words." Sarah came forward a little bit, still keeping her right arm behind her back, "I need to explain things to you as quickly as I can before I go."

He had lava in his hair. He had molten lava in his hair. Something was very wrong with his nerves, with his pain receptors. He had lava in his hair. Mike shook his head vigorously and gave another gasping cry—what the hell was happening? Wasn't volcano spew supposed to be hot? Nothing was making sense at the moment. Was he dreaming? No…no one dreamed…not anymore…

"Maybe this will help you understand." Sarah brought her arm out and around, and touched his cheek coolly.

Mike's eyes fell on her arm…and they widened in shock. The flesh had for the most part burned away…revealing an assortment of wires and pneumatic parts, artfully designed underneath armor plating of a dark cyan hue. Her delicate fingers were long and tapered, and when they came in contact with his skin, it burned more fiercely than what the lava ever could have…

"Congratulations, looks like you're the Toa of Fire." Sarah said rather distantly, and behind her blue eyes there flashed a beacon that Mike had never seen before. She withdrew her hand and inspected the biomechanics, "How do you feel about that, eh firespitter?" She winked and then continued.

"You have resistance to fire, thank God otherwise you really would be dead right now." Sarah closed her fist and brought it back down, "You found the Ta-Suva, but I bet you didn't find the Toa stone, you'll have to search for that if you want to get out of here."

Mike finally unstuck his throat, the vision of Sarah's robotic arm still emblazoned in his mind "WHAT? S-Sarah how—your arm—_what?_"

"You're the Toa of Fire, which means of course that you'll have to lead the others in my absence." Sarah said, not answering Mike's inquiry "You managed to survive the islands first test, I think you'll be alright. Don't forget, there are five other Toa who can help you…"

"Where are you going?" Mike was asking only one question at a time, when really all he wanted to do was explode with his inquiries. What was a Toa? Why had he been chosen? Why was Sarah's arm biomechanical? Had she had an operation, or was there another reason to her strange limb? Did this explain her connection and determined obsession with Bionicle? Why wasn't he dead? What was going to happen to him?

Again for emphasis, he repeated his question with a little more urgency, "_Where are you going?"_

A shadow flickered across Sarah's face for but a moment, "L-Let's just say that my brother will not appreciate me telling you these things. He is protective of me…"

Sarah had a brother? This was news to him. Mike's head was still spinning.

"You're still confused, disoriented…" Sarah said, looking Mike in the eye, "But you need to remember the things I am telling you now! My brother will stop at nothing to take this world and crush it, Mike. Maybe by the end you'll understand why I hate Sameness so much…"

_You're right, I don't understand. Thanks for taking me along on this lovely trip, Sarah, but I have to scream now. _Mike just nodded dumbly.

She raised her arm again, giving him a good look at the biometrics, "Don't tell the others about this little secret, eh? When the mask of time was broken and my brothers and I were blown back and away…that never made it into the legends. Maybe someday I'll tell you the whole tale of what we did and how we became human…but right now, kid, I just need you guys to get off this island alive."

Mike had a clever response to this (Which had something to do with the fact that she had dragged them here in the first place) and he moved to say it, but the words met a block in his throat and all that came out was a vague choked up "_Gh-acck_..."

Sarah chuckled, and patted the boy on the arm with her robotic arm, "Same ole Mike, eh? You guys are making your own Legends right now…don't forget that! Listen to me, Burgis. You need to come out of your shell for the next couple days, don't be afraid to be the hero…Stronger light and darker shadow are moving in, weather anyone likes it or not. You guys are going to have to be the light, eh?"

Mike's heart had been beating abnormally fast in those last few moments there, with Sarah speaking almost in strange tongues. Now the pace of his heart was finally slowing down back to normal…and he was no longer panting. Sarah was talking like she was going to leave them…what was all of this about?

"Sarah, can you please tell me what's going on?" Mike ran hid fingers through his hair and stared hard at the woman, "Why am I not dead?"

"You are the Toa of Fire." Sarah said, grinning, "I can't expect you to totally get the weight of this statement yet, you're the one out of the six who'll need to do the most growing. You are the leader…and above all, you touched the Ta-Suva and caused all of this."

Mike blinked and looked at Sarah, "W—"

Sarah rose to her feet and hauled Mike to his as well, "Alright, stupid. Don't ask questions and keep your nose clean. I have go to."

"Where are you going?" Mike shouted at the top of his lungs, trying desperately to get to his feet.

Sarah gave him an empty smile, and for the first time she did not look like her charming, feathery self, "You'll understand, Mikey. Please just trust me. There are a few things you'll need to know…not everyone here is what they seem, and for gosh sakes just believe in the Dreams, ok?"

Mike was so overwhelmed by a sense that he had missed _something _that he nearly wanted to cry. He tried again valiantly to get to his feet, but Sarah put that biomechanic arm on his shoulder and kept him down.

"You'll understand soon, Toa." Sarah said, and her voice flickered. There was something behind it, something deeper and more powerful, something that Mike had never before noticed,"You all are united by duty and bound by destiny…It's the way of the Bionicle, mate."

Sarah moved swiftly, faster than Mike's eye could see. She struck him to the side of the head, where instantly his vision swam…and he fell to the side, cracking his head hard on the barren ground. Before his eyes closed in the sweet embrace of black…he thought he could see Sarah getting up and walking away…

"Sarah…" He tried to moan, but his lips did not move. Dimly, in his state of stupor he thought he saw shimmering; dancing lights envelope her figure, but then again it could only have been a dream…


	14. An Extraordinary Company of Dolts

**((Now we are back again to Xavier Krause…don't judge his character to swiftly, and don't make assumptions based on….lol ok go ahead hate him I don't care. :-P ))**

_Although the island had stopped its violent tremors, the damage had been done. Deep below the surface, below the sky, below all human consciousness…the awakening began. These were not just tectonic plates shifting, it was something more, something far deeper and more terrible than what our six heroes could have imagined. The island was stirring, it lifted its head and sniffed the air, it flexed its muscles and prepared to unleash a devastating roar…_

_The belly of the island housed many chambers, and in the largest destiny waited for its orders. There were many of them, these beasts, and they knew their mission. Clean it all, for it must be cleaned…_

_As the island finally ceased its troubled shifting, the inhabitants of another chamber stretched their claws, wings, and tails. Beasts kept in stasis started to shift again, caressed by tendrils of life and motion that they had not felt in decades. Under the island, life was teeming._

_And it wanted out._

_And I watched it all from the comfort of my own learning institution. _

I am Xavier Krause, patron and owner of the University of Technological and Scientific Advancement for the Greater Benefit of Humankind. I do not consider myself an evil man; I only consider what is best for humanity as a whole. There is a difference, a clear line between the two—they do not coincide.

I wish I could make these simpletons who stand now before understand this fact.

They stare at me with their uneducated eyes, blinking as I explain to them once more in the most basic terms available to me…what it is exactly that I want them to do.

We stand in the control room for the World Vision Monitor, otherwise known as the WVM, one of the Universities more recent contributions to humanity as a whole. Again, I drew most of the rough drafts towards its design and concepts, and pushed for its complete integration in society…using satellite video I am able to keep tabs on anything happening in the world, in order to keep up to date with whatever scientific and technological advancements that need doing. It also is quite handy when trying to see what a certain Sarah Steele is up to. Sometimes there are benefits of being the most powerful man on the face of the new earth…

An intelligent support staff, unfortunately, is not one of them. I am (most unfortunately) surrounded constantly by an extraordinary company of dolts. Great minds like mine oftentimes meet opposition from…minds with little to no greatness.

"Cut off all communication links with them." I said again, slowly and clearly, staring down the young man who did not seem to understand simple English, "Do not take any incoming transmissions, do not send out any asking if they require assistance. We have been through this. Do you understand me?"

"But sir—" The same old argument again, from the same snot nosed intern,

"Y-You read the reports, you saw the graphs…a tremendous amount of energy is pouring fourth from OMB-001, who knows what's going on there? The volcano is active, we can see the smoke from the space…not to mention the tectonic plates are shifting in that region…Its getting steadily more and more dangerous for anyone to be on the island…"

I looked past the man and stared at the main WVM interface screen, sighing and letting it be plain on my features that I was displeased. Red warning lights were flaring every few feet along the console, and a large blown up satellite image of OMB-001 stared back at me—flashing rather obnoxiously. There were diagnostic reports on the condition of the island at every monitor, flashing, blinking, wailing. It was any technician's nightmare, to try and work out all the sirens and alarms and where they were coming from. Anyone on that island was in trouble that was for sure. I could not argue with the facts.

The intern was looking at my person anxiously, as though expecting this display to sway me. He did not seem to understand that my decision was final, and that my orders were to be obeyed instantly.

"Do not accept any incoming transmissions, do not make contact with OMB-001." I repeated once more supremely unconcerned, "If you can't do this I'll fire you and hire a first year student to do it for me. Is that clear?"

"They're just kids!" Another of the dolts spoke up, looking indignant, "You have a professor and six kids on that island, you can't just leave them!"

"Six?" This peaked my interest. Sarah had only come to me with permission for five students, who was the sixth child that this distraught, underpaid man was yammering on about, "Who is the sixth?"

The man seemed slightly flabbergasted that I had changed tact on him so swiftly, but still managed to reply to my question, "S-Sean Forrester."

"WHAT?" My mood swelled instantly from frustration to anger, "WHAT?"

The man cowered back at my sudden rage, maybe he wasn't so dumb after all. This was news to me, Sarah had taken the Dreamer with her? Then she really was serious. She really did want to undo all of my works, she really did want to end everything that I had fought for. She really did want revenge, she really was serious…

The Dreamer could undo everything in one fell swoop. I should have disposed of him when I had the chance, now it was too late. If Sarah was going to fight like that, then I could too.

"Cut off all incoming transmissions." I said sharply.

More sirens and beeps went off. Speak of the devil, there was Sarah right now, trying to establish a connection…

The interns were frozen. The nearest one was sitting in a chair with a headset on, and he twisted around in his seat and gave me a look, "It's coded red alert level five, sir. She must really want help."

"Of course she does." I gave a thin smile, and repeated my mantra, "Cut of all incoming transmissions. Do not let her through."

There was a burst of static, and a matrix stream of binary flared up on the WVM screen for but a moment. I stiffened and glared…somehow Sarah was hacking past the firewall and forcing her message through manually, and there was nothing this fool dolts could do about it.

_"I know you're there you bastard, if you don't pick I'm going to find some way to get back to the mainland, and I'll….." _More static _"….everything that ever happened, everyone will know and then where will you be? These kids will pull through….you'll regret it, you really will…the heroes will prevail…."_

Another stream of binary flared up, but there was a loud crackling on Sarah's end…

And the transmission was over.

"If you let another transmission through, I will know." I said smoothly, walking past the dolts and heading back out the door, "And I will punish you. Cut off all communication with OMB-001, do not attempt to establish any sort of link, and do not accept request assist forms from any of the children's handhelds. In fact, take their handhelds off the school networks. They're off campus, they shouldn't have even taken them with them anyways."

I left the dolts in that room shocked into silence, and perhaps (I hope) obedience.

My name is Xavier Krause, patron and owner of the University of Technological and Scientific Advancement for the Greater Benefit of Humankind. I am _not _and evil man…I just know what is best for humanity as a whole.

There is a difference, a clear line between the two—they do not coincide.

Sarah had taken the Dreamer.

This erred on the side of evil…and most certainly on the side of war!


	15. Fear and Flight

((Read carefully, or even twice

There was nothing to do except sit on the beach and await further orders from Sarah whilst the surf crashed around them onto the sandy shores. Emily and Wren were sitting back-to-back, watery bleary-eyed messes with their hair loose and wispy, blowing in the wind, their expressions morose and tear stained. The boys were pacing almost like cats, whirling suddenly in a passionate burst of sand as they headed back in the other direction for a desperate five second power walk before repeating the same process, over and over. Emily watched this exchange for at least ten minutes before she exploded with, "WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!"

"Like what?" Matt spun and looked hard at his sister, the bite in his tone much more vicious than what he intended. He paused a moment and then continued, his tone a little softer and a little more pleading, "We can't do a damn thing without Sarah, and you know it! Until she checks in again we stay put—right where she asked us too!"

"While the island falls apart underneath us?" Wren asked quietly, her eyes narrowed in her despair. They had all felt the tremors, and knew that they were too deep and too powerful to have been associated with the volcano. Something else was happening under their very feet, and no one had any idea what it could have been, "I'm with Emily, we have to do something…"

Hunter's mouth wasn't functioning properly, else he would have tried a pathetic stab at humor to try and brighten the dark and stormy mood that had descended on them all. Nothing could come to his mind, nothing happy, and nothing cheery. He could still remember the look on Mike's face before the lava had enveloped him. That enough was chasing away any thoughts of anything remotely entertaining.

The lanky teen looked over and exchanged a worried glance with the elder Zandstra. Matt and Hunter had wordlessly agreed not to mention the death or Mike, or Sean's vanishing. The last thing they needed were the girls falling completely and totally to pieces on their hands.

Emily drew a great shuddering breath and dug her fingers hard in the sand, feeling each small grain against her soft skin, "So we just sit here?" She looked around, "Sean and Mike are missing; this isn't to mention the fact that Sarah's gone skipping off to save them…and we all just sit here?"

"We just sit here." Matt bit off curtly, he and Hunter still pacing madly.

"Look!' Wren's voice was full of hope as she jabbed her finger towards the blue sky in a sudden outburst, "Oh, look!"

The kids craned their heads back as one, and saw something silver streak across the sky. It was one of the satellites for the WVM back at the University…no doubt someone was watching them back on the mainland.

"Guys!" Emily said excitedly, "Try—"

She didn't need to say it. Everyone had their handhelds out, and as one they were all trying desperately to connect to the school network. Maybe if they could send out a Request Assist form, things would be alright…things would be ok…

"We're not connecting." Matt stated the obvious. He scrolled through his menus on the touch screen and glared up at the satellite as it passed, "Do you think maybe this one isn't broadcasting the network's channel?"

"Not possible, unless they cut us off from the network itself." Wren shaded her eyes and glared up at the little silver projectile as it flashing across the sky, "The satellite would be flying blind if it wasn't connected to the network, and at the clip and direction its going, there's no way its going without guidance from the University. My handheld is detecting the channel it just seems like…we've been blocked." The oriental girl blinked. She had not right away realized the enormity of this statement, "W-We've been blocked? Cut off from the school network? T-That's our only way we can ask to be picked up…"

"Why would they block us from the network?" Emily asked in a hushed tone, her eyes wide, "W-Why? Request Assist forms are the only things that can save us now…"

Once again, Matt glanced over at Hunter. The dark cloud that had been over their heads seemed to settle to the ground and closed in.

There was only one man who had the authority to disconnect students from the school network. Xavier Krause, patron and owner of the University of Technological and Scientific Advancement for the Greater Benefit of Humankind…

"Why would he do this?" Hunter asked, looking around.

Their tortured thoughts and desperate feelings were interrupted by a sudden sound, an echoing booming, rolling…_roar_

The teens whipped around and stared back into the jungle. From the depths of the green darkness the swelling noise almost bowled them over. Those who had been seated now leaped to their feet, those who had been pacing now halted.

A common emotion bound them all together…deep, hot, thick…_fear._

"The containers!" Emily suddenly gasped, terror grabbing her voice and squeezing it, "Oh, Lord, the containers! There MUST be something in there that we can use to contact the University! There must be! O-Or passing airships, there must be something!"

Matt threw his communicator down into the sand, breaking finally. Emily had been right all along, they couldn't just sit there.

"I'll go." He said shortly, "All of you stay here, I'll go check them."

"No, we're all going." Wren said firmly, "First of all because those containers need at least three able bodied people to open, and secondly because we will not be splitting up any time soon. That seems to be our undoing."

"Fair enough, and we're still obeying Sarah since we're staying on the beach." Hunter voiced his opinion. Basically the kids just wanted to get up and keep moving, "I sure hope that we find something in there before—"

Another rumble. Something was in the forest, and it was angry….

Running on sand was something that the kids had never experienced—and I mean real running, panicked flight. Hunter cursed, not understanding why the going was much harder and more painful than his regular jogs around the University's paved sidewalks…

They sprinted, stumbled, ran due east along the shore thinking only of the satellite above them and how sickeningly alone they were, even amongst friends….


	16. The Midlogue

To the dedicated readers of this story, there is no excuse for why I've been gone so long.

_**But—I am back, and I am reading through this story again, and I will pick up where I left off. I haven't been following Bionicle recently, but I will wisen myself up and I will come back and finish what I started. I owe you all that. **_

_**This is the first update in like a year, so people who used to read the story, congrats, this is your update on an update. **_

_**For those who have read the story for the first time now, then welcome. I am a storyteller, and thank you for reading. **_

_**-Kite- **_


End file.
